Suggested Prayers

Some prayers for personal use.

Loving God,
Look with mercy on your servants
who seek in solitude and silence
refreshment of soul and strengthening for service;
grant us abundant blessing
in the peace of Christ our Lord. Amen.

May God give us all the courage that we need, to go the way He shepherds us,
that when He calls, we may go unfrightened.
If He bids us come to Him across the waters that unafraid we may go.
And if He bids us climb a hill, we may not notice that it is a hill,
mindful only of the happiness of His company.
He made us for Himself,
that we should travel with Him, and see Him at the last,
in His unveiled beauty, in the abiding city
where He is light and happiness and endless home.

Open our eyes to see beyond the familiar.
Extend our vision to behold the mysteries.
Make us aware of your Presence and power.
Increase our sense of ability and purpose.
Make us heed Your word and call.
Help us to be sensitive to your coming to others.
May we reach out and know we touch you. Amen.

- Saint Clare

Be born in us, Incarnate Love,
take our flesh and blood and give us Your humanity;
take our eyes and give us Your vision;
take our minds and give us Your pure thought;
take our feet and guide them along Your path;
take our hands and fold them in Your prayer;
take our hearts and give them Your will to love.

- Caryll Houselander

Silence before God has little to do with achieving
but a great deal to do with receiving.

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding, and my entire will:
All that I have and call my own.
You have given it to me and now I freely return it.
Use it according to your will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
For these will be enough for me.

- A prayer of St Ignatius Loyola

Thanks be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits which you have given me,
for all the pains and insults which you have borne for me.
Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother,
may I know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
day by day. Amen.

- The Prayer of Richard of Chichester

Anima Christi

Jesus, may all that is you flow into me.
May your body and blood be my food and my drink.
May your passion and death be my strength and my life.
Jesus, with you by my side enough has been given.
May the shelter I seek be the shelter of your cross.
Let me not run from the shelter you offer
but hold me safe from the forces of evil.
On each of my dyings shed your light and your love.
Keep calling to me until that day comes
when, with your saints, I may praise you forever. Amen.